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BRIDGE; So You Found Your 2-0 Fit? Now Bid Three No-Trump

Suppose that you land in an unlikely three no-trump, in which contract the opponents can take the first six tricks. Your combined hands offer a borderline play for a grand slam in either of two suits, with a small slam a virtual certainty.

That seems a recipe for disaster, but you emerge with a top score. In addition you can claim a world record, admittedly one that has not been in the spotlight before.

The occasion was a Stratified Open Pairs at the Long Island Regional Championships in February. Sitting North-South were Janet and Mel Colchamiro of Merrick, N.Y., one of the country's best mixed partnerships.

North-South were using a strong-club system with an artificial one-diamond bid. The opening showed 10-15 high-card points with a void or singleton somewhere in the hand, perhaps in diamonds. East attempted to mix things up with a weak jump overcall, but not in diamonds. He bid two hearts, a remarkable psychic effort. This succeeded up to a point, for it maneuvered his opponents into the wrong contract.

South believed the two-heart bid, and judged that three no-trump would be a sound contract if, as seemed probable, his partner's short suit was hearts. Unfortunately for East, his partner also believed the two-heart bid, and obediently led that suit.

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Pulling himself together, he won the first trick with dummy's heart queen. He then ran five rounds of clubs and West, confused by the bidding, parted with a heart and three spades. This made it easy for the declarer to take three more heart winners, ending in dummy, and finesse the spade jack. This added up to 13 tricks, for a score of 520.

At other tables, the North-South partnerships found their heart fit but had to face energetic diamond bidding by their opponents. They were unable to determine that the fit was perfect for slam purposes, and all rested in four or five hearts. That gave the Colchamiro family a top matchpoint score, with 520 against a string of 510's. Whether this was fully deserved is questionable.

Mel Colchamiro now claims a world record for participating in an auction with the fewest number of total cards held by the bidders in their own suits: one.

''To beat this,'' he said, ''someone will have to void-void me in the auction. I'm betting no one ever will!''